Barbarians maul Grizzlies in rugby action
The Merritt Barbarians men’s rugby team won its first-ever away game on the weekend, defeating the West Kelowna Grizzlies 37-12 on Sunday.
Eric Schmidt and Darris Routley paced the Merritt attack with two tries each, while Cody Schindler, Jonathan Cooke and Sam Carroll all added single tries. Carroll also kicked a two-point conversion.
According to Bar-barian Nathan Brigden, the Merritt forwards were able to recycle the ball quickly and cleanly to the backs, and support each other all over the field.
Merritt will have a much tougher outing this coming Saturday as they take on the very experienced Vernon Jackals, last year’s league champions.
This year’s Barbarians’ squad is coached by Tom Wigglesworth. He can be reached at 250-378-9421. The team is still looking for more players.
In other rugby action, the Merritt Secondary senior boys’ team played twice last week. On Wednesday, coach Ryan Reid’s young squad was leading with five minutes to play before giving up two late tries in a 17-10 loss to Gleneagles Secondary from Vancouver. Merritt scorers were Ty Reese and Brandon Torjussson.
On Thursday, the MSS boys traveled to Kamloops for a match against the St. Ann’s Crusaders. It was another close contest as the Panthers were edged 15-10. Daniel Gradinaru and Michael Nicholson recorded Merritt’s two tries.
MSS will be hosting Westsyde this Thursday at 4 p.m. at Central School.
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